“It was the Queen of Oak Bay due to depart at 7:30 p.m.,” BC Ferries public affairs manager Darin Guenette explained. “We had huge amounts of walk-on passengers, we ended up overselling by 21 people so we put out an announcement to ask for volunteers.”

More than the required 21 stepped up and boarded the Queen of Coquitlam, set to leave the dock 15 minutes later. BC Ferries accommodated those passengers, thanking them with $25 food vouchers without incident.

“This is notably the highest level of walk-on passengers all year,” Guenette said. “Even the busy summer weekends, we don’t see this amount of walk-on passengers.”

To accommodate the surge of both foot and vehicle traffic on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, BC Ferries has added an additional 90 sailings from Thursday through Monday. The majority of added sailings were on the Vancouver-Victoria route, Guenette said.